1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharge head and an assembly method of the liquid discharge head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an ink jet head which is a representative one of the liquid discharge head, a configuration using a flexible wiring member (flexible cable) has been known. The flexible cable electrically connects a recoding element substrate generating energy for discharging liquid and an electrode portion performing an electric connection to an inkjet recoding apparatus. Since the flexible cable has flexibility, a position of the electrode portion can be set a desired position.
If the flexible cable has a configuration exposing itself outside the ink jet head, there is a possibility that the flexible cable touches the ink jet recording apparatus when the ink jet head is attached/detached, and a wiring in the flexible cable may be damaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,785 discusses a liquid discharge head having a configuration in which parts other than the parts of the flexible cable including the recording element substrate and the electrode portion are located at an inside of a tank holder and not exposed outside. An ink tank is detachable in the tank holder.
On the other hand, when an ink holder is integrally composed with an inkjet head, for providing the configuration that does not expose the flexible cable outside as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,785, the flexible cable may be covered with another member. In such a case, issues, such as increase in a production step and cost increase may occur.
Thus, for providing a structure which can keep the flexible cable away from touching the ink jet recording apparatus at a time of attaching/detaching the ink jet head to the ink jet recording apparatus, a configuration in which the flexible cable exposed outside is fixed to a housing such as the ink tank or the ink holder, can be considered. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-341385 discusses an ink jet head in which apart of a bent portion of the flexible cable is fixed to the housing. As illustrated in FIG. 9 in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-341385, an adhesive is beforehand coated on a surface of the housing (the second surface 60), and the flexible cable is fixed to the housing in a step of bending the flexible cable. Therefore, in this step, an electrode portion (an electrical contact substrate H1005) is in a state not contacting to the housing.
The flexible cable provided in the ink jet head described in the above-described U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,785 has two bent portions (a bent portion 19 and a bent portion 20), and each edge line is not parallel.
In the ink jet head provided with the flexible cable including two edge lines not parallel, an issue generated when the electrode portion is fixed after fixing the flexible cable to the housing as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-341385, will be described.
Since the flexible cable is designed having a margin of a length in a direction in which the flexible cable is bent, there is a possibility that an attachment of the electrode portion to the housing is shifted from an original position according to an attachment position of the flexible cable. In such a case, when the ink jet head is mounted in the ink jet recording apparatus, there is an issue concerning a reliability of electrical connection that the electrode portion of the ink jet head is not in contact with an electrode portion in the recording apparatus side. On the other hand, if the electrode portion of the ink jet head is fixed adjusting to the attachment position after the flexible cable is fixed to the housing, there is a case in which the electrode portion is set to the position by force. In such a case, since the two edge lines are not parallel, there is a possibility that wiring in the flexible cable is twisted.